Dreams
by Trinity Day
Summary: Leia dreams true dreams.  [Immediately pre ANH]


**Dreams**

Leia dreams true dreams.

She recognizes the truth in them those rare times that she remembers the visions upon waking. Dreams about the past, often about a mother who died when she was very young. A beautiful woman who carries the weight of the worlds on her soul, whose eyes speak of anguish Leia does not dare to imagine. Two names, Leia hears. Her own, _Leia_, and another, one that she cannot hear, cannot make out. Perhaps also her own, the surname she was born with but never knew. Her father's, maybe, a man who is even more of a mystery to Leia than her dead mother, for she has does not even have a face for him. Someone else completely, perhaps, related to Leia in some arcane way she might never know.

There are dreams about the present, her day-to-day life, even those parts she shouldn't be privy to. Overheard comments that don't filter through her consciousness still worm their way into her psyche, causing her to dream things she couldn't possibly know, intrigues and affairs all acted out in her subconscious.

Sometimes even dreams about the future, although these she understands to be nothing more than well-deduced guesses, a product of her passions and her fears. Leia has always been intuitive, has always been able to determine the most likely course from what she knows of the present. Her dreams of the future, when she considers them in the light of day, Leia dismiss these as nothing more than a logical extension of her conscious gift into her unconscious realm of fancy.

Still, Leia doesn't tell anyone about these dreams.

Tonight, Leia dreams of destruction. She dreams of people screaming out in pain for one infinite instant. She dreams of a planet that is gone, destroyed, vanished. She dreams of a weapon, brutal but strong. She dreams of explosions.

She dreams of death.

Leia fears these visions, recognizing them as harbingers of an unavoidable truth. Rumours have been whispered on the wind about a new weapon the Empire has developed, one that can cause the destruction she has seen in her dreams. She knows that if someone doesn't stop them, what she has seen in her dreams tonight will happen, will continue to happen, like a plague slowly creeping from one star system to another, a sickness that doesn't affect the life-forms in the atmosphere but the planets themselves.

((She fears she knows the planet in her dream, but won't admit the identity even to herself. Nerves, she tells herself. It is only nerves. Nightmares. They are only nightmares. She is projecting her own insecurities into her dreams. She cannot know the future; no one can know the future. She can't know what planet will be sacrificed to the new weapon, what planet's blood will be used in the christening; she can only fear. It is only fear.))

But still, she recognizes her dreams as something that _will_ happen. With such a weapon at the Empire's disposal, there is no chance of these visions being avoided. She knows the Empire too well to believe otherwise.

It must be stopped.

This weapon must be stopped.

The Empire must be stopped.

No matter the price.

She fears what will happen to that person, brave enough to defy the Empire. Just as she recognizes the truth in her dreams, she recognizes the truth of the inherent danger in defying the Empire as boldly as this.

More profoundly, Leia fears what will happen if no one person is willing to make the great personal sacrifice necessary for the greater good. No gift of foresight is needed for this prediction; the Empire has never taken kindly to those who oppose it. Security will be greater around such an important project, meaning there will a higher chance at getting caught than there has been on any mission Leia has ever been on for the Rebellion in her life.

Her father comes to her, later that day, with a thin ray of hope. There is an opportunity to steal away the plans for this new weapon. There is a hope that these plans can be exploited, that a weakness can be found, that the monstrosity can be destroyed. It will be dangerous, but not as dangerous as that weapon will be if it is allowed to roam unchecked.

Leia realizes that it is she who is being called upon to make the sacrifice, she who must pay the price. Leia fears she know what the price will be.

She can't forget her dreams and she fears she won't be strong enough.

She can't forget her dreams and knows that she will be strong enough.


End file.
